In parsha Shofetim, Moshe continues his lengthy oration to the Israelites. He talks about government, specifically about setting up courts and “setting a king over” themselves. He says that the king should be a Jew, not a foreigner, and that he should not have many wives, nor should he have many horses, nor should he amass great wealth [17:14-17]. In other words, a king should be a humble, ordinary man. Further, the king should have a Torah scroll made for him and “read in it all his life…thus he will not act haughtily toward his fellows or deviate from the Instruction to the right or to the left” [17:20]. And so now I’ll ask you…does this mean that we are supposed to have a pope? Here’s what I mean: Judaism, if we are to take Mordechai Kaplan’s view, is a civilization. Civilizations have kings, presidents, prime ministers, and so on, to have an axis for their governments to revolve around; to have someone large-and-in-charge to run things, or at least to be a figurehead and sort of keep an eye on things. The Pope is kind of like that. His primary function, other than being a figurehead, is to dictate what is officially Catholic and what isn’t in terms of policy. Because Catholicism has a central hub, it remains both unified and uniform. So, should we have a pope of our own?

I would say no. Here’s why: Judaism encompasses a vast range of beliefs and ideas. We have a very spacious tent, and people with a lot of different views about God, the Torah, life, etc. take shelter under it. If we had a pope, or a theocratic king of some sort as is described in Shofetim, who decided what was officially Jewish and what wasn’t, a lot of people would leave our tent, break off, and start their own groups, just as happened with Catholicism, and those of us left in the tent would be alienated from who left and vice versa. We’re a small enough tribe without pushing people away by creating official doctrines and dogmas! What comes of not having a pope is that we are not a religion of beliefs, but of actions (mitzvot) and of a common past (Torah). Parsha Shofetim was written in a time long before we had such wide variations in belief and practice as we do now, a time when having a theocracy was possible and perhaps even desirable. But that time is past, and the most important thing now is to maintain our unity as a people. I think Judaism’s strength and vitality lies in its variety. I love that we have so many flavors: Orthodox Ripple, Conservative Chip, Reform Swirl, Reconstructionist Crunch, and so on. Each one of us may have a favorite flavor, but in the end, it’s all ice cream and it’s all delicious!

Another thing that strikes me about this Torah portion is the injunction against destroying the fruit trees of a besieged city [20:19-20]. I could talk, as many Jewish environmentalists before me have done, about how this represents a positive command against wanton destruction, an injunction against thoughtless waste and greed (ba’al taschit). What I’d rather do, though, is focus on the verse that says “Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city?” [20:19]. The Torah is telling us to listen to those who don’t have voices, and to protect those who can’t protect themselves. I consider this verse merely an extension to the Torah’s constant refrain of telling us to be kind to the stranger, the widow, the orphan, etc. This is the Torah’s shorthand for telling us to defend the defenseless, to help the helpless, and in general to support those in our community who need it. Trees are just another group in our community who need our help and can’t defend themselves.

Furthermore, trees figure very prominently in our tradition. The Torah itself is called a Tree of Life. It is said of the Baal Shem Tov that he was able to hear the voices of trees, and of King Solomon that he could understand the speech of the birds. Our tradition teaches us that listening to nature and immersing ourselves in the natural world can be a window to spirituality, a gate to wisdom. As summer draws to a close, don’t forget to take a little walk this shabbat and listen to the trees and the birds. You might find that they have much to teach you.

Aside from occasionally stashing an iPod in my sports bra while working out, I’ve never found my boobs a particularly convenient cache for goods. Nor do I imagine anything larger than an iPod would make for swift and graceful recovery in a moment of passion. Which is why I laughed aloud at both the Talmud and Rashi when I read their explanations of the last chapter of this week’s parshah, Balak.

Chapter 25 of Bamidbar (Numbers) reads, “while Israel was staying with Shittim, the people profaned themselves by whoring with the Moabite women, who invited the people to the sacrifices for their god. The people partook of them and worshipped that god. Thus Israel attached itself to Baal-peor, and the Lord was incensed with Israel. The Lord said to Moses, ‘Take all the ringleaders and have them publicly impaled before the Lord, so that the Lord’s wrath may turn away from Israel.’ So Moses said to Israel’s officials, ‘Each of you slay those of his men who attached themselves to Baal-peor” (Numbers 25:1-5).

The Rebbe once said, “Either you will affect your environment, or your environment will affect you. There is no middle ground.” In this week’s parsha of Korach, an charismatic person (Korach) tried to take control of the temple of Israel in opposition to Aaron. He persuaded 250 other prominent Israelites to join him. According to the text, they all paid for it with their lives.

Popular public opinion can be very persuasive. For young people, peer pressure is enormous – but even adults feel pressured to conform to popular opinion. But is this the best source for our values? Do we put our values up for popular vote and let other people determine for us what they are based on a majority vote? Do we let our environment control us or do we affect our environment?

As Jews we are given a source of values and wisdom to rely on – the Torah. The Torah, and the rabbis, were not right about everything, but there is true wisdom in their writings. Rather than have popular TV shows, movies, music or other cultural media tell us what values to have – we have a better source. Human nature does not change and this is why writings that are thousands of years old can still be truth for the 21st Century. Wisdom is wisdom – no matter how long ago it was written.

Have you ever came up with an idea that you thought would be terrific and everyone you talked to told you not to do it? This is a common story with some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country. They too were told that is was too “difficult”, “unlikely”, “impossible” and other negative terms. What did they do? They did it anyway – and it worked!

In this week’s parsha of Shelach, spies were sent into Canaan to report back what it was like. They came back with stories of how fortified the cities were, how large the warriors were, and how they never thought Israel could never defeat them. In other words, they came back saying the idea was “impossible.” The penalty for this report, as we all know, was for the Israelites to wander in the wilderness for forty years. It seems G-d does not reward us for a lack of courage.

If you have an idea that you really believe in and have done the planning – go for it. Your friends, family and others will try to talk you out of it because they may lack the courage to do what you are about to. Don’t let their fear interfere with your plans. As Aristotle says, “You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.” And from e.e. Cummings; “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”

In this week’s parsha of Behaalotecha (don’t ask me to pronounce it) we have Miriam being given a severe punishment. Her ‘crime’ was chastising Moses for his treatment of his wife, Tzipporah. Tzipporah had given Moses two sons (Gershom and Eliezer), had saved his life at one point, but was now being separated from Moses. Miriam knew that Tzipporah had been a wonderful wife to Moses and could not understand why he was doing this. She knew Moses had a good marriage – and it was an intermarriage.

Tzipporah was a beautiful woman and utterly faithful to Moses. His marriage to her (a Midianite) was what today we would call an “intermarriage” – Jew to Non-Jew. Some Jews today would consider such a marriage to be a betrayal of the Jewish people or of our lineage. Nothing could be further from the truth. As Miriam recognized, Tzipporah was a incredible addition to our people, not a subtraction. We should all be proud to have her in our family.

Intermarriage rates in the US are over 50% and climbing. Some Jews make the argument that in order to ‘preserve’ Jewish continuity that a Jew must marry another Jew. This is not true. Jewish continuity is not dependent on this kind of marriage. Moses, our greatest leader, was not dependent on this kind of marriage. Judaism is preserved by making a difference in the lives of human beings, not simply because it has been around a long time.

Marry the person you fall in love with no matter where they come from. Judaism will survive, or not, based on its own merits.